Today, component of the pistols for bearing the barrel, known as slide, is made from steel, while its body component is made from aluminum alloy or made all-steel.
The pistols having aluminum alloy bodies are often preferred because they are inexpensive and light. However, the aluminum alloy bodies have certain disadvantages. For example, it is known that the aluminum body that comes into contact with steel slide abrades in time due to this contact and after some time it breaks. In addition to this, it has been observed that the aluminum, which has a quite low rupture-strain, cannot bear the load that arise during blast and that aluminum body crush during the firing of the pistol. For this reason, the aluminum alloy pistols are easy to use, yet their working lives are relatively limited.
In the state of the art, many alternative techniques have been tried in production of the body. For example, pistols having steel bodies have been produced; these are known to be heavier and much more robust compared to the aluminum. Here the aim is to eliminate deformations that arise as a result of the body's contact with the slide, and to lengthen the working life of the pistol by increasing its durability. Although the pistols with steel bodies that are much more resistant to the load that arise during blast of the pistol, result in lengthening of working life of the pistol, due to steel alloy's being relatively much heavier, they are not convenient for constant carriage and their use is difficult; therefore, these properties prevented such pistols from being preferred.
Also, although there has been attempts, as an addition to existent techniques, at production of pistols having both the body and slide made from aluminum; since the aluminum slide cannot bear the high load and heat that it is subjected to during the blast, it is not possible to produce the slide component of the pistol from aluminum.
Another material used in light alloy pistol bodies is titanium, which is known to be more durable than aluminum. However, titanium's being quite expensive precludes its advantage of durability. For this reason, pistols with titanium bodies are also not preferred often.
Pistols work through simple recoil force. When the bullet inside the barrel is fired, as the bullet is propelled forward within the barrel with the impact of the bullet's blast pressure, it pushes the slide backwards due to reverse force. The slide that is pushed backwards with backlash force begins to set the recovered recoil spring. With the effect of the set recoil spring, the slide, which comes to the distance calculated in design, rapidly returns to the position that it must rest. Pressure force that arise with the blast during the firing of the pistol, first impacts the slide that locks the barrel, then, with slide-barrel movement it impacts the body, and with the movement of the slide that is subjected to force and began to move, it impacts other components within the pistol. As it is understood, the more pressure impacts the body of the pistol, the bigger pressure impacts other components that make up the pistol and are inside the pistol. From time to time, this pressure force that acts on the said components that are inside the pistol may result in break down or breakage of these components. For this reason, in order to ensure a long working life for the pistol or other components that make up the pistol, the pressure force acting on these components must be kept at minimum.
This high pressure that arises during the blast has negative effects on the body of the pistol; these negative effects have been subject of certain patents and useful models. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,563,675, elastic disks that are placed inside the body are used in order to counter the pressure and high energy that arise in pistols during firing. As for U.S. Pat. No. 1,754,689, once more, for countering the pressure that effect the body and absorbing a part of the energy that arise; between the slide and body, nylon material “delrin” is used, while in invention U.S. Pat. No. 3,756,121, nylon material “zytel” is used. As for U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,352, it mentions a recoil spring system that can counter the recoil force.
As it is understood, generally, the high energy and pressure that particularly act on the body and slide in pistols have been subject of many inventions and these inventions always take the direction of subsequent addition, to the pistol, of apparatuses having property of elasticity but have short working life; therefore, no long-lasting solutions have been found for the above mentioned deformation problem.